EnergyVibe

The Newest Spin on Flower Power

admin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:54:20 +0000

Toyota’s latest marketing feat has just opened the door for a wide variety of witty titles and one-liners. The buzz around the Toyota’s sun-powered Wi-Fi daisies is taking off. Planted in a few major US cities, these flowers are not only generating public awareness of the third generation Prius, they’re generating electricity and free internet access.

The modern art-in-place flowers are 18 feet high and each provides a place for 10 people to sit, charge their gadgets, and connect to the internet. Electricity is generated via solar panels embedded in the back of the petals and at the base of the stem.

It’s a great concept to illustrate the Prius theme of “Harmony between Man, Nature and Machine;” however I wonder if the Toyota or its builders took the campaign’s concept to the fullest extent by building the sculptures out of recycled plastic. Is there a plan for their use or disposal after they’ve had their run across the US? It seems Toyota knows how to pull off an impressive publicity stunt – people appreciate the intriguing and innovative, especially when there’s an element of free for them. Yet I’m waiting to see if Toyota follows through with the message they’re promoting when these flowers reach the end of their “useful” life as marketing tools.

Image via: thedesignblog.org

“Food Inc.” – The Movie

stephaniec — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:52:01 +0000

You may have seen the movie “Fast Food Nation.” You may have read the books An Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Now playing, but probably not in your local theater, is “Food Inc.”, a movie about the food industry and the way our grocery stores are supplied. It has great insight and is a worthy reminder about why we should buy local and organic.

Even the term “locavore” has officially been added to Webster’s dictionary. Let’s take all of this knowledge, media, and news and apply it. Eat locally, and until you get to the grocery store, check out the trailer below.

Why we’re here; why you’re here.

stephaniec — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:07:36 +0000

In the five plus years that 2rw has been developing and running energy awareness programs, in one format or another, we have learned a variety of lessons that help us to make our efforts more successful.

We work to get our clients and their people to adopt the lifestyle — because that is in fact what we are trying to establish — of energy and water efficiency. Making changes based on past experiences, developing new ideas, and even tweaking details has helped us achieve that goal more effectively.

While we do want to stay in business (shameless plug — call us!), we realize there is a need to share our knowledge with others to help the greater good. That’s why we’re here. We want to help you, fellow members of the energy efficiency/behavior change community, to succeed.

I hope that’s why you’re here as well — to learn from our experiences and to share some of your own along the way. I look forward to the conversations that will follow, the shared knowledge that will grow our programs, and the new strategies that will help us all save energy.